page_title: Postmark
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Postmark / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo image of postmarks used by London Penny Post in 1680-1682
context_page_description: A postmark is a postal marking made on a letter, package, postcard or the like indicating the date and time that the item was delivered into the care of the postal service. Modern postmarks are often applied simultaneously with the cancellation or killer that marks the postage stamp as having been used, and the two terms are often used interchangeably, if incorrectly. Postmarks may be applied by hand or by machines, using methods such as rollers or inkjets, while digital postmarks are a recent innovation. The local post Hawai'i Post had a rubber-stamp postmark, parts of which were hand-painted. At Hideaway Island, Vanuatu, the Underwater Post Office has an embossed postmark.
context_section_description: The first postmark (called the "Bishop mark") was introduced by English Postmaster General Henry Bishop in 1661 and showed only the day and month of mailing to prevent the delay of the mail by carriers.
  In England during the latter part of the 17th century, several postmarks were devised for use with the London Penny Post, a postal system that delivered mailed items within the city of London. The postmarks bore the initial of the particular post office or handling house it was sent from along with a separate time stamp. Postage was prepaid and the postmark was applied to the mailed item by means of an inked hand-stamp. Some historians also consider these postmarks to be the world's first postage "stamps".
  In the 19th century and early 1900s, it was common for letters to receive multiple postmarks indicating the time, date, and location of each post office delivering or transporting the letter, and this is still occasionally true, though to a lesser extent.  While almost every contemporary postmark includes a location as well as a date, in 2004, New Zealand Post announced plans to eliminate the location on their postmarks and include only the date; however, information about this can be determined by a three-number code on the postmarks.
  In Great Britain, the first postmark employed for the cancellation of the then new adhesive postage stamps was the Maltese Cross, so named because of its shape and appearance. This was used in conjunction with a date stamp which was applied, usually to the rear of the letter, which denoted the date of posting.
  Different types of postmarks include railway post offices (RPOs) and maritime (on-board ship) postmarks.  Postmarks on naval vessels during sensitive operations in wartime are sometimes "clean", showing less information than usual to prevent route of travel or other details from falling into enemy hands.  Similar to this is the "censored postmark", overprinted with a black obliteration of the time and place of mailing, for similar reasons.
  The Pony Express used a variety of different postmarks on the mail it carried across the Western United States. There are only 250 known examples of surviving Pony Express mail/postmarks in various collections today bearing one of more than a dozen different types of postmarks.
  Hawai'i Post, a discontinued personal delivery service, once had a surfboard mail postmark, for covers that traveled by surfboard.
  A colour postmark is on the United States Postal Service-issued collectible envelope commemorating the 2004 inauguration of George W. Bush.
  While postmarks are applied almost universally by or under the authority of the official postal department, service, or authority in the United States it is possible to receive "a permit to apply your own postmark", called a Mailer's Postmark Permit, and under certain conditions specified by the private express statutes in the United States, a privately carried letter may be cancelled with a private postmark. Unofficial entities that issue artistamps may use postmark-like markings as well.
  Marcophily is the study of postmarks and there are many published work on postmarks covering the topic from before 1900, such as the fancy cancels, until the present day. These include the so-called fancy cancels of United States to modern machine postmarks.
  Fewer postmarks are used now than previously, with the advent of meter labels, some types of computer vended postage, and computerized postage that people can print from their own personal computers (called "PC postage" in the United States, these services have been offered by such companies as Stamps.com and Neopost). These indicia are not always postmarked by the post office but if put into the mailstream later than the date listed on them, they are postmarked about 50% of the time.  Because of this, it is a bad idea to try to use the date on your postage as a postmark.
  An official example relating a numismatic item to postmarks occurred on April 13, 1976 when the U.S. issued a new two-dollar bill.  People could buy the bills at face value, add a first class stamp (a
caption: London Penny Post postmark & heart-shaped Time-stamps.
exif: {"Image XPComment": "[91, 0, 104, 0, 116, 0, 116, 0, 112, 0, 58, 0, 47, 0, 47, 0, 119, 0, 119, 0, ... ]"}